President Petro Poroshenko has submitted to parliament a bill that would cancel draconian asset declaration rules for anti-corruption activists, seeking to bring the requirements in line with common Western practices, according to Dmitro Shymkiv, deputy head of the Presidential Administration, who worked for three months on a compromise.
The text of the bill was published on parliament’s site on July 10.
But the likelihood that parliament will take up the legislation before adjourning for summer vacation on June 14 looks slim. Nonetheless, Shymkiv said the Presidential Administration considers the draft law’s passage to be a high priority.
This means that the draconian requirements signed into law by Poroshenko in March will remain in effect until new legislation is passed and signed into law.
Those call for anti-corruption activists to file electronic asset and income declarations identical to those of government officials. Poroshenko has defended the requirements as providing greater accountability, but they were widely seen as the authorities’ revenge on civic activists for their efforts to expose graft and an attempt to obstruct their activities.
Since the language is vague, potentially they could apply to anyone who “takes part in measures linked to anti-corruption efforts.” This includes activists of anti-corruption NGOs, investigative journalists, protesters against corruption at opposition rallies, and even anti-graft NGOs’ donors, lessees, suppliers and printers.
Poroshenko’s current bill would change disclosure rules.
Under the new rules, NGOs with an annual income of at least Hr 480,000 ($18,462) will have to publicly disclose the wages of their top 10 earners, as well as a list of donors who give more than Hr 80,000 ($3,082) and all expenses that exceed Hr 80,000.
Private entrepreneurs have to report funds they receive from foreign donors if they get them directly, as well as expenses financed with such funds if they exceed Hr 4,800 ($185).
Shymkiv argued that the new disclosure rules were in line with Western standards.
He added that Poroshenko had heard civil society’s concerns about the disclosure rules for anti-corruption activists and addressed them. The only penalties that nongovernmental organizations will face is loss of their tax-free status if they fail to disclose the required information, Shymkiv said.
“It’s the same way as in the United States and every European state,” he said.
He said the Presidential Administration had engaged different international experts and government representatives to draft the legislation, which he acknowledged went through multiple rewrites and versions.
However, Vitaly Shabunin, head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center’s executive board, lambasted the new disclosure rules.
“For the unreformed tax agency, this tool will be an effective way of blocking the work of organizations critical of the authorities,” Shabunin said in his blog on July 8. “….(The legislation) gives tax officials complete manual control over the activities of non-profit organizations.”
The new legislation was discussed at a meeting between Poroshenko and civic activists on July 7.
“The Presidential Administration will try to sell the president’s bill as a compromise with civil society,” Shabunin said. “But there was no compromise: no working group involving civic activists has been created, and the text of the proposed amendments was only given to us at the meeting where we were supposed to bless and sign it.”
